THE "FIRST THURSDAY" NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 2002 No. 95

WELCOME

As we start the new school year we welcome the 104 boys who are joining the school in Year 7, boys who are joining other years and we also welcome the following new staff:
Mrs Janice Ash, part time teacher of Economics and Business Studies. She has been teaching at Christ Church High School in Ashford. Mrs Ash graduated from the University of the West of England.
Mr Simon Barnes, teacher of Mathematics joins us having taught at Sandwich Technology School and Barton Court Grammar School in Canterbury. Mr Barnes is a graduate of the Open University.
Mr Edward Collins, teacher of Science, joins us from the Taipei British School in Taiwan. Mr Collins is an old boy of the school who has graduated from the University of Surrey.
Mr Wayne Howe, Subject Leader for Physical Education, is joining the school from Sandwich Technology School where he has taught both P.E. and Mathematics. Mr Howe graduated from Loughborough University.
Mr Paul Nazir, Subject Leader for Physics, joins us from Cove School in Farnborough, Hampshire. Mr Nazir graduated from the University of London.
Mrs Grace Fields will be joining us as a member of the Support Staff. She will be the new Learning Support Assistant.

STAFF LEAVERS

At the end of the Summer Term five members of staff left the school:
Dr Alan Payne, teacher of Physics, has left to take up a new position at St Lawrence College in Ramsgate.
Dr Reeti Sweetman, teacher of Biology, leaves us to join Hedingham School in Essex.
Mr Keith Onions, teacher of P.E./Games, has left the school to take up a position as Head of Department at the new Jo Richardson Community School in the London Borough of Barking.
Mr Bob Turner, part time teacher of ICT and Mathematics, has retired.
Mrs Kate Curtis, part time teacher of Mathematics, has left after completing her contract with us. Mrs Curtis began her career at DGSB and has twice returned to "fill a gap" in the Mathematics Department.
Mr Tony Lascelles, teacher of Modern Languages, has also left. Mr Lascelles has also previously worked at the school.
We hope to see Mrs Curtis, Mr Turner and Mr Lascelles again should we require supply cover.
Miss Sally Pidduck, Learning Support Assistant, has left to begin her PGCE in teaching at Christ Church University College, Canterbury.

EXAMINATION RESULTS

The A Level results were excellent with an average points score of over 28 per student. We are very high in the league tables. The percentage of A and B grades was 56%, an increase on last year.
Among the successes were:-
Nick Hayward, with 3 As and a B, who gained a place at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge (Natural Sciences).
Stuart Inglis, with 4 As, who gained a place at Trinity College, Cambridge (Philosophy).
Ben Langley, with 3 As and a B, who gained a place at LMH, Oxford (Chemistry).
Paul Witty, with 3 As and a B, who gained a place at Bailliol College, Oxford (Engineering and Computer Science).
Other students who did very well included:-
Anthony Boden 3 As
Jonathan De Keyser 2 As, 2 Bs & 1 C
James Eaton 2 As & 1 B
Peter Elms 2 As & 1B
Thomas Freeman 3 As
James Garlick 2 As & 3Bs
Chris Hadley 2 As, 1 B & 1 C
Stephen Hughes 4 As
Malcolm Montgomery 4 As
Matthew Neill 3 As & 1 B
Edward Smith 3 As & 1 C
Stephen Taylor 3 As & 1 B
Kirk Waite 3 As & 2 Bs
At GCSE the point score was 56.6 representing a good score in Value Added terms. James Rowson achieved the highest number of A* grades, five.
At both levels the candidates and their teachers are to be congratulated on achieving these advances.
Mr N A Slater - Headteacher

MOBILE PHONES

In July 2000 the Department for Education and Employment notified all schools about the potential dangers of mobile phones and urged all schools to restrict their use by under-16s. This advice, based on the government commissioned Stewart Report concerns the dangers of radiation on growing brains and recommends that the use of mobile phones by under-16s should be restricted to emergencies only.
This is completely in line with the school policy on mobile phones. To re-iterate, whilst we understand that many parents may wish to provide their sons with mobile phones for reasons connected with their safety, we insist that they are switched off during the school day and are not used at school.
This has become an issue on occasions due to the serious misuse of mobile phones by a few pupils, including the making of hoax and malicious calls. This is not only against school rules but may also be illegal. Anyone behaving in such a way cannot expect to be allowed to continue to bring a phone to school.
We would therefore ask for the support of all parents in ensuring that their sons use their phones in line with the Government health advice given above. It should also be noted that all mobile phones should be insured and that they are only brought to school at their owner's risk. This applies to all other expensive equipment.
Please note that we are not able to investigate or search for lost personal electronic equipment such as mobile phones or personal CD players.
Headteacher

CONGRATULATIONS to Cameron Ward who, together with a student from the Girls' Grammar School, has won a prize at the annual biology project week run by Pfizer. Cameron has won £50 for himself and £700 for the school. He worked on a project showing the effects that drugs have on the body.
The event was a seven-day residential course held at Canterbury Christ Church University College.
The 16 students involved attended lectures and completed projects in all areas of biology. They also toured Pfizer's research unit and received career advice.

EXAM SUCCESS!

Mrs S Clough, who as well as teaching English has an interest in Specific Learning Difficulties (such as Dyslexia), has been awarded an Advanced Certificate by Canterbury Christ Church University College.

JUNIOR PRIZEGIVING - Wednesday 17th July

This annual celebration of work and achievements in Key Stage 3 took place as usual in the Hall just before the end of term.
Over 100 pupils were awarded certificates or prizes for a wide range of activities, academic, sporting and extra-curricular.
The Guest of Honour, Mrs Penny Thornton, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board, spoke warmly about the success of the school and music was provided by the Chamber Quartet, Lower School Band and Miles Brett (who played a violin solo). As usual Mr Richard Davies, Director of Music, organised this part of the proceedings.

GUEST EVENING

A reminder that Guest Evening for last year's Year 13 leavers and also those in last year's Year 11 who have won subject prizes will be held on Friday 13th September starting at 7.30 pm. School certificates will be presented to all in the year. Prizes will be awarded to those who achieved the highest mark in each subject, along with other prizes for particular achievements or special endeavour.
Mr G M Falconer - Assistant Headteacher

"HEADSTART" ENGINEERING TASTER COURSE

In July I attended a "Headstart" Engineering taster course at the University of Surrey. It was a five-day residential course covering all aspects of engineering. Among the activities were: making an electronic dice, testing the strength of drinks cans. Operating the 'HESS rig' (a miniature chemical plant) and building a tower that could support the most weight with the least number of pieces of K'nex. On the Wednesday we went on an industrial visit to Nokia where we saw their testing rigs for new mobile phones. We also got to try out some of the latest handsets - including one with a digital camera.
I enjoyed the experience and would recommend anyone thinking about taking an Engineering Degree to apply for similar courses.
Alan Blanchflower - Form 12S

ART NEWS

Trip to the Tate Modern - 18th July 2002
Years 10 and 12 Art students accompanied by Mr Almond, Mr Thompson, Mrs Lloyd and Mrs Owen visited the Tate Modern gallery, spending the morning session looking at various aspects of the Permanent Collection, and the afternoon session making studies in the magnificent 'Matisse/Picasso' exhibition.
Matisse and Picasso were, without question, the two most important artists of the 20th century and this fascinating exhibition compares and contrasts their work, following the rich dialogue and close friendship they had.
Each of our pupils produced a large volume of detailed work and our pupils' exemplary behaviour throughout the trip drew praise from gallery staff, other visitors and our coach driver.
The day was hugely enjoyable and valuable, and we look forward to our next trip.
Art Competition Prize Ceremony - 26th July 2002
Once again, our Art pupils have swept the board in a major Art contest, with three of our boys being awarded 1st place in Dover District Council's 'Playscheme 2002' Logo Competition.
The Council runs summer holiday events for local children and asked all the area's Key Stage 3 pupils to produce logo designs that could be used for the Playscheme 2002 brochure cover, 'T' shirts and other applications.
The work from our school was adjudged to have been 'particularly strong and inventive', and bits from each of our three winners designs were incorporated into the final design.
The winning pupils, representing each Key Stage 3 year were Robert North (Year 7), Michael Schlamm (Year 8) and Alex Rodgers (Year 9) and they, and Mr Almond, attended the awards ceremony at the Council's White Cliffs Business Park offices at lunchtime on Friday 26th July 2002.
Mr S Almond - Subject Leader for Art & Design

ICT & COMPUTING DEVELOPMENTS

Computer Room 3 has been recabled and now forms part of the RM educational network that covers the whole school. Twenty new workstations have been connected there. This bring teaching facilities for 'A' level Computing and Vocational ICT up to date.
The work is being paid for by NGfL (National Grid for Learning) money from central government.
Mr P Woolger - ICT Co-ordinator

ST JOHN ON-LINE COMPETITION AWARD CEREMONY - 9th July 2002

Earlier this year St John Ambulance ran a competition on-line. You had to answer questions and then write a 50-word tiebreak essay. The competition was good fun and St John ambulance hope to run a national competition later on this year.
People who did well in this competition were invited to an award ceremony at Cineworld, Ashford and so Shaun Goldup (who was in 8Pt), and myself represented the school. We went into one of the rooms there (the Deluxe screen!) and the top three schools received certificates whilst the top three people received prizes. Dover Grammar School for Boys came third out of all the schools in Kent. We were going to see a preview of Scooby Doo but due to technical difficulties we could not see it so we watched Monsters Inc. instead. Then we had a buffet lunch and went back to school. If they run another competition I know I will enter!
Adrian Falconer - Form 8PY

MUSIC

The end of the Summer Term saw the School's musicians back in action again after everybody had finished their exams. The main event was the Summer Concert given in the School Hall on the evening of Wednesday 10th July. This was an extensive programme of instrumental music featuring a wide variety of solo items as well as the usual contributions from the Lower School Band and Big Band. The newly established strength in string playing was represented in solo pieces for violin, viola and cello whilst the Chamber Group played music from the Classical period and an original composition for String Quartet by Mr Baldock. As well as more traditional repertoire and jazz the concert also featured pop music by Forge, the school's leading rock band.
The following Wednesday 17th July the musicians were busy again providing the music at Junior Prizegiving (reported on elsewhere in the Newsletter) and rather appropriately all but two of the many performers who took part on that occasion were members of Years 7, 8 and 9.
Several of the School's instrumentalists also took part in Dover Music Centre's Summer Concert on Thursday 27th June, including Mr Davies at the Town Hall organ.

Grade Examinations
A number of pupils took music examinations at the end of the Summer Term and deserve congratulations on their excellent results:
Andrew Fellows Initial Grade Piano with Honours
Thomas Elliot Grade 1 Trumpet with Merit
Toby Kember Grade 1 Alto Saxophone with Merit
Robert McKay Grade 2 Clarinet with Merit
Nicholas Jones Grade 4 Cello with Merit
Thomas R R Smith Grade 5 Theory
The School Organ
The organ in the School Hall celebrates its seventieth birthday this year, having been installed during the summer holidays of 1932. The organ was built by the leading firm J.W. Walker & Sons and a display in the main foyer of the school outlines its history. This information is also available in the form of a small booklet available from the School Office for any readers who may be interested.

The Steinway Grand Piano
The piano in the School Hall also celebrates an important birthday this year. The Steinway Model D Concert Grand No. 486 was built in 1902 and remained in Steinway's concert hire stock until 1929 after which it was at London's Dorchester Hotel until the early 1950s before finding its way to the School.
Mr R S Davies - Director of Music

UNIVERSITY SUCCESSES

We are very pleased to hear of the following successes among former DGSB students:
University of Leicester
Philip Disbrey has graduated with a BA Economics, upper second class degree.
KIAD - Canterbury
Robert Kennett has successfully completed a Further Education course at KIAD in Canterbury and going on to study for a BA in Illustration at KIAD.
Christopher Wright also successfully completed a Further Education course. However Christopher is going on to study for a BA in Graphic Design at Southampton.
Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine
James Kelly has graduated from Imperial College with a First Class Honours MEng degree.
Coventry University
Michael Goodbun has successfully completed a MDes in Transport Design and received Honours.
University College London (UCL)
Sam Donaldson has gained a B.Sc. First Class degree in Psychology at the UCL.

SCHOOL WEB SITE - http://dovergrammar.co.uk

As the school web site continues to develop more and more ideas are being thought about. The virtual walk around is still unfinished but I am hoping to have something on line by at least half term. An old boy of the school has also expressed an interest in helping out and is currently developing part of the site. We are hoping this will work like Friends Reunited but for pupils, past and present, of this school only.
To keep the site as up to date as possible I would like input from staff and pupils. Should anyone have anything they wish me to include within the pages please feel free to speak to me at any time.
To aid the speed at which I am able to upload any information can I suggest that any information be sent to me either on disk or emailed to me at the following address:

The site does have a guest book in which you can leave messages for all to see. Please note that this is monitored on a daily basis and anything that appears without a valid Email address will automatically be deleted.
Also being developed with the help of an old boy of the school is a forum section. However it is not yet in a position to be uploaded for general use. It may be necessary to use a log-in password on this part of the web site to minimise misuse. Again, all will be monitored and automatically filtered. More details will appear on the web pages as and when I know more myself.
The web site is updated, usually on a daily basis.
Mr P Skelton - Reprographics Technician

PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

Hi Everyone
I hope you all have had a fantastic summer break and that the boys are refreshed and looking forward to the new academic year.
The next PFA committee meeting will be held in the Headteacher's Study on Wednesday 11th September at 7.00 pm. Anyone wishing to join the committee will be most welcome.
The AGM will be held in the School Hall on Tuesday 24th September at 7.00 pm. Everyone wishing to attend will be most welcome.
Look forward to seeing you then.
Joan Gambrell - Chairman

PFA 200 Club
The winners of the July draw were:
1st £25 Dr J Bulmer, 2nd £15 Mrs J Adams, 3rd £10 Mr C MacDonald
The winners of the August draw were:
1st £25 Mrs J Miell, 2nd £15 Mrs D Neeve, 3rd £10 Mr A Mitchinson
Mrs P Brown - 200 Club Secretary

SPORTS NEWS
Table Tennis Coaching and House Matches

Table tennis coaching courses and matches will be held on Tuesday lunch times between 13.05 and 13.50 for any boy in Year 7. Those interested should ask their form tutors to leave a note in my pigeonhole stating who is interested. Alternatively anyone interested can pay me a visit in the Reprographics Room during first break - between 11.30 and 11.50.
Due to the numbers this usually attracts I may hold the sessions on other days than Tuesdays if the gym is available. Once the house matches begin the numbers will be limited to 12 a session. Boys must wear the correct kit to play and this will consist of trainers or plimsolls, shorts or tracksuit bottoms and a dark coloured shirt. No white is allowed above the waist in table tennis and now with the emergence of yellow balls, yellow is also frowned upon. Bats can be provided, but if you have your own please bring this along with you.
These sessions will start on Tuesday 17th September. Names must be given to me by no later than Friday 13th September.

Table Tennis School Teams

There will be an important meeting for all boys from Year 8 and above who have signed on to play Table Tennis for the School. This will be held in the Workshops on Tuesday 10th September at 11.30. This year there is a new format of four divisions that will need to be explained. I should also be able to hand out the league rule and fixture books.
This year we have gained a team from Tower Hamlets and will hosting six teams playing under the school flag.
Mr P Skelton

DOMINO CLUB

This was mentioned last term but never got off the ground due to a clash with the sports day. I am, therefore, again offering to run such a club on Thursday lunchtimes between 13.05 and 13.50 for any pupil or member of staff who is interested.
Most of you will regard dominoes as a double 6 set of 28 cards and just matching the numbers up. If that is all you have played before then I suggest you attend one of the sessions where I will be producing my double 9 sets to play the likes of Maltese Cross, Chicken-foot or Fives and Threes. I do have a double 15 set of 136 cards, which would even tax the Maths Department at fives and threes, but there are many other games that I am currently researching. I am currently learning to play Mexican Train and will soon be manufacturing the extras needed to be able to play this domino version.
Anyone from any year who is interested please let me have your details and I will arrange for your inclusion on one of the domino tables.
At present all the dominoes sets are my own. I am hoping to attract those genuinely interested in joining this club and therefore will be asking for an entry fee of 20p from anyone wishing to play. This money will go towards purchasing sets of dominoes for the school.
Once set up, I may run the club as a league, using counters or chips as points. Numbers will initially be limited due to the number of sets of dominoes available.
The Domino Club will begin (venue to be decided) on Thursday 12th September. Names of anyone interested to be submitted to me by no later than Tuesday 10th September.
Mr P Skelton

PLEASE NOTE:

The School Photographers will be in school on Friday 6th September. Photographs will be taken of Years 7, 10 & 12 and these will be available for purchase.
Year 9 will have form photographs taken but purely for school use.